One year later, Jon Lester finds himself in completely different position

Monday

Jul 14, 2014 at 6:20 PM

MINNEAPOLIS — Remember where Jon Lester was a year ago at this time?

By Tim Britton

MINNEAPOLIS — Remember where Jon Lester was a year ago at this time?

Lester in the middle of last July was not at the All-Star Game. Lester was coming off consecutive losses. Lester had a 4.58 ERA. Lester was bumped from his first start after the break because manager John Farrell thought he needed extra rest.

Over a 53-start stretch, from the beginning of 2012 to the All-Star break of last season, Lester had posted a 4.73 ERA. His team was under .500 when he started. He was allowing more than a hit per inning, and striking out barely two batters per every walk.

Picking up Lester’s option at the end of the season didn’t look quite so automatic.

Lester, since then, has been about as good as anybody in the American League.

In 37 starts since last year’s All-Star break, including his tremendous postseason, Lester is 20-10 with a 2.47 ERA. That’s better than anyone in the American League, and it trails only Los Angeles’ Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke in all of baseball during that span.

Lester has struck out more than four batters for every walk. He’s morphed from a question mark — his ERA was a run worse than Felix Doubront’s at the end of last July — into the irreproachable rock of the Red Sox rotation.

A lot of it dates back to that extra rest around the break last season.

“You kind of get in those slumps where you think you’re making good pitches and you’re really not. You’re kind of blinded by it,” Lester said of his midseason slump last season. “Once things start going back your way and you get the ball down, you realize [you weren't making good pitches before] because you can compare where you’re at. It’s just a matter of making that adjustment.”

That adjustment required some time, however brief, away from the mound last July.

“I’d pounded my head against the wall so much during that spell that I was almost going backwards. I was physically tiring myself out, and mentally,” said Lester. “Having that All-Star break really helped me, just getting away for four days to regroup mentally and physically and come back fresh.”

For Lester, the biggest difference has been his command, as evidenced by his decrease in walks.

“Really from the second half of last year, I feel like I’m in more command when an at-bat comes up,” he said. “I know from start to finish what we’re trying to do.”

Coming back fresh in the second half last season and building on it ever since has put Lester in a completely different financial position, of course. Boston’s decision to pick up Lester’s option was hardly news, since it was such an obvious choice to make. Now approaching free agency, Lester reiterated that he wishes to remain with the Red Sox long-term.

“This is where I want to be,” Lester said. “We’re optimistic on everything. Hopefully I come back a couple more times to this wearing the same jersey…. I still think they want me here. I think that feeling is still mutual on both sides, I would hope.”

Lester countered the idea that the Red Sox low-balled him in spring training, with their reported $70 million offer.

“They didn’t get to own the Boston Red Sox by being stupid with money,” he said. “I think they just took a shot and put that offer out there and that’s what they wanted to start at. We had plenty of talks after that as far as moving money and moving years, but we never got to another offer.

“I think you have to try to put your feeling aside in this…. This is a business, and you guys [in ownership] have a business to run. When you think about, I have a business to run. I have to run myself. I get it.”

He said he’s willing to talk during the season — “the right time will come when we can sit down and talk, whether it’s tomorrow or in four months” — and that hitting free agency wouldn’t eliminate the Red Sox as a preferred destination.

“That doesn’t change anything. Now they just have more competition,” Lester said of hitting the open market. “When it comes down to it, the first day, I hope Boston is the first team that calls me.”

Lester talked about embracing the challenges of playing in Boston, about how weird it might be somewhere else without long postgame interviews or extracurricular charitable commitments. That doesn’t mean he loves all the questions about his impending free agency, of course.

“It’s frustrating but at the same time you can’t get frustrated by it,” Lester said. “It’s there. Everybody knows it’s there, and it’s going to be a topic until either something gets done or whatever happens. I can’t change that.

“The biggest thing for me is just the distraction side of it…. The last thing we need in last place is to have a distraction. I don’t want Jackie Bradley, Jr. to have to answer questions about my contract.”

Twitter: @TimBritton

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